


is that what you do when you love someone?

by staystreetfriend



Category: Charmed (TV 1998)
Genre: 06x05: My Three Witches, Flashbacks, Gen, Once and Future King, chris has flashbacks to the unchanged future while he's dying lol, inspired by electrumqueen, who is a queen (or king) indeed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:28:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24012085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/staystreetfriend/pseuds/staystreetfriend
Summary: Hi! So. Much like electrumqueen wrote the fanfic this fanfic was inspired by because they couldn't stop thinking about Chris-Crossed, I am writing this because I couldn't stop thinking about that fanfic. This is set during My Three Witches, in which Chris almost dies (that is, until he's healed by Leo). While he is waiting to be saved, he has flashbacks to being attacked and nearly killed at his university. If you have read electrumqueen's fanfic before, you know that they wrote Chris and Wyatt as a couple on top of being brothers. Although I respect all ships and, needless to say, love the way electrumqueen wrote their characters, I have included nothing that hints at there being anything more than brotherhood between them in order to keep this enjoyable for everyone!Title is my favorite line from the fanfic that inspired this :)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 38





	is that what you do when you love someone?

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [there's going to be a party when the wolf comes home](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5750362) by [electrumqueen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/electrumqueen/pseuds/electrumqueen). 



> Hi! So. Much like electrumqueen wrote the fanfic this fanfic was inspired by because they couldn't stop thinking about Chris-Crossed, I am writing this because I couldn't stop thinking about that fanfic. This is set during My Three Witches, in which Chris almost dies (that is, until he's healed by Leo). While he is waiting to be saved, he has flashbacks to being attacked and nearly killed at his university. If you have read electrumqueen's fanfic before, you know that they wrote Chris and Wyatt as a couple on top of being brothers. Although I respect all ships and, needless to say, love the way electrumqueen wrote their characters, I have included nothing that hints at there being anything more than brotherhood between them in order to keep this enjoyable for everyone!
> 
> Title is my favorite line from the fanfic that inspired this :)

He registers the pain before his mind has time to comprehend what just happened. It spreads quickly, the poison. He can practically feel it spreading to touch every inch of his body. He would be wriggling around in discomfort if he weren't in agonizing pain. Unable to hold himself up any longer, he crashes to the ground. _At least there's some cushioning,_ he thinks. He registers that he has a darklighter arrow in his abdomen, but he can't seem to focus on any one thought for too long, probably because Gith won't shut his fucking mouth.

He can hear the vanquishing potion shatter underneath Gith's foot, and even though he isn't listening to the demon's rambling, he can make out the pure smugness in his voice.

Chris feels stupid. Really stupid. All he can do now, he figures, is lie here like a wounded animal on the side of the road and wait for his family to rescue themselves so that they can rescue _him_. He hates relying on people, quite frankly, even family. Especially family. He hasn't since the day he left Wyatt, ripping both of their souls apart. Not that it could've been prevented or anything.

He startles, realizing he had started to drift off. Turning his blurry vision to Gith, Chris can see he is angry with him. Something about Phoebe being an empath. He manages a weak apology.

"...desires are empty," he hears Gith say, rather sardonically. "They lack foundation. This world will fall, too. It's only a matter of time."

Chris hears Wyatt's voice in his head: _Demons are moronic. They always have to reveal something. They're too idiotic not to. If you have even one brain cell, Chris, you can always outsmart a demon. Just listen to them. Listen!_ Mustering up as much energy as possible, Chris flings his arm out, throwing Phoebe into Paige's universe. His last thought, before Gith knocks him out, is that he hopes his mother will be able to manage on her own.

Through half-lidded eyes, Chris sees Wyatt stomping toward him with a look of pure rage on his face. He almost cowers, but it's not like his brother has ever hurt him before. Chris just wants to know why he's here and how he got here. He doesn't get the chance to ask.

"You left," Wyatt tells Chris, shaking his head like his little brother ought to be ashamed. "As soon as it happened, I knew. I could feel it." He looks distraught, crouching down to where Chris is lying. "Haven't I kept us safe? Haven't I always loved you? Look at you. We've always been half of a whole, Chris. Now look at you."

"I know," Chris agrees, nodding and reaching out for his brother. "I know."

"No, Christopher," Wyatt says, reaching forward so that he can hold his little brother's head up. "Look."

Chris opens his eyes, and he does look. He sees a mess of knives, bodies, and blood. He sees the boy whose throat he slit, lying right next to him, lifeless. "I didn't..."

"You can't leave me," Wyatt says, still holding on to his head, as if it were a lifeline. He looks desperate. "Not again."

"I won't," Chris says, closing his eyes and leaning into Wyatt's gentle touch. He feels safe, for the first time in a long time. His brother will take care of it all. "Not ever. I won't."

When he opens his eyes again, Wyatt is gone.

Escaping the fire, the sisters run down the road and... through a portal. "Where are we?" Paige asks, taking in their new surroundings.

"Who cares?" Phoebe pipes up, completely over the day they had just been through. "Where's Jason?"

"Jason?" Piper asks, holding Wyatt close.

"Yeah," Phoebe says, sounding frustrated. "He was in my world, and he should've come out when we got the demon, right?"

"You sure it was really Jason?" Paige reasons.

Phoebe frowns. "I don't know. What do you mean?"

"I mean," Paige starts, her face in deep concentration as she comes to a realization, "in my world, there's all these people that I knew from the old folks' home. Maybe _your_ Jason is just a creation of _your_ world."

"God, I hope so," Phoebe says, focusing on her nephew's soft cries to take her mind off the fact that her boyfriend could very well be dead.

"Wyatt needs help." He begins to scream, looking somewhere behind Piper. Paige follows his eyes, finding their whitelighter lying just feet away, his face gray and his lips blue.

"Oh, my God, so does _he_ ," she gasps, rushing toward him. She's relieved to find that he's alive, albeit barely, and she turns to her sisters and nephew. "He's still breathing."

Piper wastes no time, calling out to Leo, who arrives immediately. His jaw is set, but his face softens once he sees that everyone is still in one piece. "You're back. Where were you?"

Piper knows that look on his face has been reserved just for Chris lately, but she's unable to care about the war they've started with each other while her son is sick. She isn't going to reignite the flames. In the back of her mind, though, she wonders if someone should eventually have a talk with the two men to figure out why they seem to despise each other so much. All she says in reply to Leo is, "Heal now, ask later."

Leo heals Wyatt before moving on to Chris, who never moves, even after his wound has completely vanished. Paige says his name tentatively.

All Chris manages in reply is, "Wyatt." His eyes remain closed, and Leo and Piper turn to each other with frowns plastered on both of their faces.

"He's fine. He's right here. It's Leo, buddy. I healed you, but you should still take it easy. Do you know where you are?"

At this, Chris opens his eyes. He slowly looks around, taking in the worried looks on everyone's faces. It doesn't escape him that even Leo looks uneasy. He stares at Wyatt, safe and secure, and still a baby, in his mother's hands. "Yes," he finally says, coughing softly. He half expects to taste blood in his mouth, but he reminds himself that he's fine. "Gith's lair. I came to vanquish him. What happened?"

"You were shot with a darklighter arrow." Leo points to the ruined potion. "Gith must have blindsided you."

"Yeah," Chris says, remembering. "Yeah, it's not the first time that's happened." He has to blink really hard to stop seeing San Francisco in a pile of destruction. It's only 2003.

Once again, Leo frowns in confusion, but he brushes the comment off to help the young man up.

"Let's get out of here," Piper says. They orb.

For the first - no, second - time in his life, Chris is afraid of Leo. Rather, he is afraid of what Leo is capable of doing to him. He isn't stupid enough to believe that his father doesn't have the sway he says he does with the Elders. He's respected up there, especially after Chris practically made him a hero during the Titan attack. For a moment, he considers trying to get rid of his father again, but he knows that he would definitely be as good as dead if he were to try that again. Leo's here to stay, at least while Chris himself is here. Chris knows this. He just hates that, apparently, suspicion is all it takes in order for Leo Wyatt to want to spend time with someone.

Deciding to face the music as the hearing approaches, Chris offers himself up personally to his father. If he has to, he supposes he could come clean about everything, including his own identity if need be. It would complicate things, but it would certainly be better than the alternative.

He never would have expected Leo to hand him the proof needed to get rid of him, not in a million years. When he looks at his mother, she's smiling that wide, beautiful smile of hers, and he knows she must have had something to do with Leo's unexpected act of kindness. Still, he decides to take what he can get. For a split second, he sees in his father what everyone always tried to drill into his head growing up. He takes it, and he allows it to feed him just a little bit of hope. Enough to keep going.

**Author's Note:**

> "Is that what you do when you love someone? You leave them? Even though you have always been half of a whole?
> 
> Wyatt could stop him. Could wrap his magic around Chris and hold him tight, keep him still. Never let him leave.
> 
> He could. He could win. He has the most power.
> 
> But it's Chris.
> 
> In the end, Morgan wept for Arthur. That is all you can hope for, isn't it? When you rule the world. That someone might remember you, and someone might weep. Someone who knows you. Someone who loves you. Morgan lay Arthur to rest in Avalon, and she cried for him: a gift."


End file.
